2012 season peaks late

As of the beginning of February, the cough-cold season had yet to materialize and illness levels were only just beginning to climb. If that’s the case, then an expected illness peak in late February/early March would make the 2011-2012 cough, cold and flu season one of the later-peaking seasons in recent years.

As of Jan. 21, overall incidence of upper respiratory illness this season was down 7.5% according to IMS Health, as compared with the 2010-2011 season.

The 2011 fall allergy season leading into 2012 was relatively flat as compared with a strong 2010 fall season. And this spring allergy season is expected to recover from a slow 2011 season, Scott Hanslip, IMS Consumer Health director sales, told Drug Store News. “We’re expecting a fairly strong spring [allergy season] in 2012. We’re going to see more of a turn back to normalized conditions,” he said.

Two cough-cold subcategories that may deserve a look for the coming season are asthma and hand sanitization. Both IMS Health and King Bio will be marketing their asthma-care offerings — Azma.com and AsthmaCare, respectively. And GoJo Industries will be revitalizing its line of hand sanitizers for next season with an Advanced Purell line.

The article above is part of the DSN Category Review Series. For the complete Cough-Cold & Allergy Buy-In Report, including extensive charts, data and more analysis, click here.

EDMOND Okla. — According to a report prepared last month by the Economic Impact Group discerning the impact prescription-only pseudoephedrine would have on Oklahoma citizens, prescription-only PSE would result in almost 300,000 additional doctor’s office visits at an estimated cost reaching $60 million; $6 million would be directly borne by consumers.

In evaluating the potential cost limiting access of PSE will have on law-abiding consumers, the report also took a look at the effectiveness more restrictive access to PSE has in reducing methamphetamine abuse. Review of methamphetamine treatment admissions across multiple states with varying degrees of PSE restriction found no correlation between more restrictive regulations having any impact on methamphetamine abuse.

"The economic impact study in Oklahoma quantified what we already knew to be true: a prescription requirement for popular and reliable over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines will lead to higher healthcare costs for responsible consumers, lower productivity for Oklahoma businesses, and lost tax revenues for the state," stated Scott Melville, president and CEO of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. "Effectively reducing meth production in Oklahoma is a critically important goal, but it’s important that methods employed to achieve that goal do not burden law-abiding Oklahomans with significant and unnecessary costs."

"The substitutability of [methamphetamine] products for consumers combined with the ease of access to local markets provided by existing gang infrastructure and relations with Mexican drug trafficking organizations suggests pseudoephedrine restrictions are less likely to reduce patterns of meth abuse," the report concluded. "In fact, society would likely trade one drug-related law enforcement concern for another … thus, the benefits to society may be muted, or even exacerbated, depending on the market behavior of [meth] suppliers in response to a policy shift."

The Economic Impact Group report was funded by a grant provided by CHPA.

DSN to host new retail pharmacy panel at FMI Health & Wellness Expo

ORLANDO, Fla. — FMI will be hosting a new retail-pharmacy-focused panel here on March 18 during the association’s Retail Food & Pharmacy Health & Wellness expo to be moderated by DSN’s editor-in-chief Rob Eder.

The panel will be anchored by retail panelists from the FMI Health and Wellness Council and will focus on opportunities for retailers and suppliers to improve the overall "wellness experience" for supermarket customers. Other discussion points will focus on how in-store pharmacists and dietitians can become more accessible to customers and how supermarket pharmacy operators and their suppliers can simplify health-and-wellness information for shoppers.

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Coming toward the end of the calendar year, there will be many consumers perusing purchases of over-the-counter medicines and devices in an effort to deplete their flexible spending accounts, many of which still contain a “use-it-or-lose-it” provision.

Private label just keeps chugging along.
Thanks to strong consumer demand for lower-priced alternatives to national brands and retailer desires to differentiate themselves from the competition, private label seems to keep gaining more traction in the retail world.

In a Journal of Advanced Nursing study of 90 adults with type 2 diabetes published last week, female gender, elevated blood sugar levels, neuropathic pain, and fatigue were related to sleep disturbance, even after controlling for factors such as age, diabetes duration, depressive symptoms and distress.

Ascensia Diabetes Care, based out of Basel, Switzerland, is showing its support for World Diabetes Day 2017 by publishing 30 portraits of inspiring women who are making significant contributions to advancing diabetes care.

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